47:13–14 This vision, addressed to a landless group of exiles from the southern kingdom living in faraway Babylon, insists that their future lies in a return of the entire twelve-tribe nation to its former homeland (cf. 37:15–28). They will not have to fight to retake that land—as they had campaigned under Joshua to possess it in the first place—or even to defend it once they return there (cf. chs. 38–39). Rather, they will receive it from the Lord as a gift—the fulfillment of his promise to the fathers of an inheritance comprising the land of Canaan (e.g., Gen. 17:8; cf. Num. 34:2). The original division of the land was explicitly not to be made up of equal shares; rather, larger portions were to be given to larger tribes (cf. Num. 26:54). But in Ezekiel’s vision each tribe is to be given an equal allocation (Ezek. 47:14).331 Fairness is a crucial element of the land division, as is the return of the land to the individual tribes in place of the tendency for control of real estate to be aggregated by the monarchy and its allies (cf. 45:8–9). Since the tribe of Levi receives no separate allocation of territory (apart from its living space within the sacred portion; 45:5), the sacred number of twelve tribes is achieved by counting separately the two tribes descended from Joseph—Ephraim and Manasseh (47:13).

47:15–23 The borders of the land described by the prophet exclude the historical holdings of Israel in the Transjordan but include land to the west and north that was not historically part of Israel. The reason is simple: the land to which the exiles will return is not historic Israel but the Israel of Promise, whose boundaries were established in Numbers 34:1–12. The border stretches from Lebo Hamath in the north to the Brook of Egypt and Meribah-kadesh332 in the south, and from the Mediterranean in the west to the Jordan on the east. Ezekiel begins his listing of the boundaries in the northwest, moving clockwise to define the eastern, southern, and western boundaries, while Numbers 34 starts in the southeast and moves clockwise from there. This may be because, from the Transjordanian perspective of Numbers, the southeast corner was the nearest part of the land, while for someone returning from Babylon the northern frontier would be reached first.333

The original annexation of the Transjordanian region by the two and a half tribes was driven by pragmatic principles (they saw it was good territory for their abundant livestock) rather than God’s promise (cf. Num. 32:1–2); not so the restored home of the purified people of God, in which proximity to the temple is the primary consideration. Indeed, if pragmatic principles rather than divine promise were to be considered as the driving motivation in the postexilic situation, the people might as well remain in Babylon, where the prospects of worldly advancement are much better than those in a ruined Judah. But for those with faith that the tiny trickle emerging from the temple could become an uncrossable torrent (Ezek. 47:2–5), the small beginnings of the return from exile will be worth enduring for the sake of the greater work of God yet to come.

Although the focus of Ezekiel 40–48 is firmly on Israel—and within that on the sacred strip at the heart of the land—the doorway nonetheless remains wide open in Ezekiel’s vision for foreign-born sojourners who live among Israel to inherit alongside native-born Israelites (47:22–23; cf. Lev. 19:34). This should underline the fact that there is no ultimate conflict between Ezekiel 44 and Isaiah 56 with respect to their view of foreigners. Foreigners who join themselves to God’s people can become full community members, even to the point of receiving an inheritance with the rest of God’s people (Isa. 56:3–7; cf. Zech. 8:20–23);334 it is only foreigners who remain uncircumcised, physically and spiritually, who must be kept out of God’s presence (Ezek. 44:6–9). This represents a greater openness to outsiders than the original land distribution in the days of Joshua, which made no mention of foreign sojourners’ inheriting land alongside Israelites.

48:1–7, 23–29 Having identified the borders of the Promised Land, the prophet (or more precisely the Lord) proceeds to allocate it to the twelve tribes, starting in the north and moving from there to the south. There are thirteen strips in all, twelve equal strips for the tribes and a sacred strip containing the temple and city, along with land for the priests and Levites as well as the prince. These strips run from east to west (v. 1), aligning the tribal territories with the sacred east-west axis of the sanctuary itself and providing a means of orienting the whole land around the temple, in which the Lord has taken up residence.

The exact dimensions of the tribal strips are left unspecified, in contrast to the precise specifications of the sacred strip. This is similar to the description of the temple itself, in which the most important spaces are precisely defined, while the less important areas remain slightly out of focus. The only point emphasized is that they are to be divided “equally” (47:14), unlike the patchwork quilt of tribal areas of varying shapes and sizes in the days of Joshua. The two separate nations of Israel and Judah are now reunited as one, under a single ruler (48:21; cf. 37:15–22).

The logic behind the ordering of the tribal areas is straightforward: the four tribes who are allotted the land most distant from the sacred zone are Dan, Asher, Naphtali, and Gad—the sons of Jacob’s concubines, Zilpah and Bilhah (48:1–3, 27–28). Meanwhile, the eight sons of Jacob’s wives, Rachel and Leah, take the four strips immediately to the north and the four to the south of the sacred zone (vv. 4–7, 23–26).335 As with everything else in this vision, those with the most honor are positioned closest to the sanctuary, while those with lesser honor are more distant.

Perhaps as a nod to the old realities of the temple’s location in the southern kingdom of Judah, the sacred strip is not quite central, with seven tribal strips to its north and only five to the south. The sacred portion is still located between the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, though their relative position has been reversed, with Judah now north of Benjamin and thus north of the temple, rather than south (v. 22). This arrangement relocates some of the old northern tribes into the southern part of the kingdom, notably Issachar, Zebulun, and Gad (vv. 26–27), while Judah now becomes part of what was the old northern kingdom.

What is striking, although overlooked by most commentators, is that the sacred strip containing the temple has also apparently migrated northward, away from its historic home in Jerusalem. Since each of the tribal strips are equal (47:13–14), and there are seven to the north of the sacred reservation and five to the south, a quick calculation demonstrates that the site of the temple is now somewhere close to Shiloh, approximately 30 miles (48 km) north of its previous location.336 The vision does not explicitly identify the location of the center of the sacred strip within the renewed Israel; indeed, apart from delineating the borders, the prophet shows no interest in the future of any other places within the land. The topography has not changed dramatically: the visionary temple is still on a mountain that forms part of the central spine of the land (40:1–2; cf. 36:1–15), from whence a river could flow eastward down to the Dead Sea (47:1–12), but all the old place names have faded from view. Given Ezekiel’s radical critique of Jerusalem’s past and present (cf. ch. 16) and the defilement of the temple’s former home there (cf. chs. 8–11), perhaps it is not so surprising that the prophet envisages a new location for the renewed sanctuary, separated from Jerusalem. A new location near Shiloh, more central for all the people and connected with Israel’s premonarchic traditions, has a certain logic to it and explains the new name given to the city, “The Lord Is There” (48:35).

48:8–22 It is equally striking that, in a passage describing the distribution of the land as a whole, the individual tribal strips receive remarkably little attention in comparison to the sacred strip, even though it has already been described in 45:1–9. While most tribal allotments are covered by a single verse, the sacred strip takes up fourteen of the total twenty-five verses (48:8–22). The sacred strip is 25,000 cubits (almost 8 miles [13 km]) in breadth and extends across the length of the land (“from the east side to the west”; 48:8). At its heart is a 25,000-cubit square, which itself comprises three east-west strips, two of 10,000 cubits in breadth and one of 5,000 cubits. The central 10,000-cubit strip is reserved for the priests and contains the sanctuary itself, with a similarly sized strip allocated to the Levites to the north of it,337 while a 5,000-cubit strip is assigned to the city. The priestly portion, with its unique proximity to the temple, and thus to the Lord, is assigned to the Zadokite priests in recognition of their past faithfulness to God (cf. 44:15–16). It is a most holy place within the holy portion of the land (48:12). Those most faithful in the past thus receive prime access to the Lord as their reward. Yet the Levites too graciously receive a special allocation of part of the holiest portion of the land, despite their going astray with the people (vv. 13–14). They are restored once again to their ancient role as temple guardians, as in the wilderness encampment (Numbers 3). This land is their inalienable right, not to be sold to others or exchanged for other property (Ezek. 48:14).

The 5,000-cubit-wide strip of land assigned to the city is to the south of the priestly portion of the sacred strip (vv. 15–20). The city itself is a square, in keeping with the sacredness of its location, and takes up most of the breadth of the strip in a north-south direction, with additional land to the east and west to provide food for its inhabitants, drawn from all twelve tribes of Israel (v. 19). Together with the priestly and Levitical strips it makes up a 25,000-cubit square at the center of the sacred strip. Meanwhile, the remainder of the sacred strip is assigned to the prince. Its function was described earlier: to provide the resources for the prince to supply the temple with its various sacrifices and offerings and to prevent the prince from taking the land belonging to the people (45:7–25). Here its mention underlines the prince’s exalted status, having been given land adjoining the most sacred portion. Just as access to the different areas of the temple was assigned to God’s people on the basis of a graded hierarchy, so is the land allocated.

48:30–35 The final verses of the vision bring us back to a central theme of chapters 40–48: entrances and exits (cf. 43:11). As with the temple and its surrounding sacred area, the city is a precisely measured square (48:30, 32). It has twelve gates, three facing in each direction—unlike the three gates of the temple, which face east, north, and south (cf. Ezekiel 40). The significance of the gates lies in the fact that they are named for the twelve tribes of Israel (48:30–34; this time including Levi and counting Ephraim and Manasseh as one tribe). As a result, and in contrast to Jerusalem, which always belonged to David personally rather than to Israel as a whole (2 Sam. 5:7), the new city functions as a visible focus of the unity of the restored people (cf. Ezek. 48:19).338 The large number of gates focuses our attention on the broad accessibility of the city, in contrast to the more restricted space of the temple.

Yet the city is not the center of the land; it faces northward, toward the temple, which is the center. For this reason the north wall and north gates are described first and are assigned to the favored tribes of Reuben, Judah, and Levi (the three most significant tribes descended from Leah), while Joseph, Benjamin, and Dan (the tribes descended from Rachel, along with the first child of Rachel’s concubine, Bilhah) are assigned the east side. The other three tribes descended from Leah (Simeon, Issachar, and Zebulun) are assigned the southern gates, while the gates to the least-favored west are assigned to Gad, Asher, and Naphtali—remaining descendants of the concubines, Bilhah and Zilpah (v. 34).339

Finally, the city is given a new name that reflects the focus of the entire temple vision: “The Lord Is There” (Hb. yahweh shammah; v. 35). Much of the vision has stressed the relative inaccessibility of the Lord, even while he has returned to the temple in the midst of his people, surrounded by massive gates and restricted access. But other aspects of the vision have communicated the blessing that comes to all Israel as a result of the Lord’s presence in her midst, notably the river of life that flows to bring life throughout the land. The new name of the city underlines the latter theme; the Lord is not merely present in his temple, separated from the city by a priestly buffer zone that guards his holiness, but is also genuinely “there” for all Israel, who are gathered in microcosm in the city. The sacred square shape given to the city and its new name underline the Lord’s presence with his people.

In particular, the name “The Lord Is There” communicates something very distinct to the exiles, who are themselves at this time most emphatically not “there.” In the meantime, the Lord is with them in their exile as a “sanctuary . . . for a [little] while,” as he promised (11:16). However, the time is coming in which their exile will come to an end and the Lord will regather his people to their own land, where he will once again dwell in a sanctuary in their midst. The corollary of the Lord’s being “there” (back in the land) is necessarily that the people too will once again be “there” with him. On this day the prophet’s earlier prophecy will finally find its fulfillment:

I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore. My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary is in their midst forevermore. (37:26–28)